Doctors in England are to get new guidelines telling them how to help patients tackle obesity head on. GPs will have to treat obesity as if it were any other medical condition and advise overweight patients to slim under the new government guidelines.

On June 13, 2002, 108-year-old Alice Knight finally starved herself to death. It was her protest, a protest against being moved from the care home she loved to one she did not recognise.

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has launched new guidance outlining ways that social care organisations can ensure significant participation of children and young people in developing and improving their services.

The chairman of Cambridgeshire’s health watchdog has blasted the Department of Health for failing to respond to concerns about mental health cuts.

Kent County Council has worked with IT supplier Anite to develop an online self-assessment application for citizens seeking council care services.

A leading care charity has today hit out at the Government over shortfalls in funding for commissioned services.

Devon County Council proposes to improve social care in the county by commissioning services for adults from voluntary, not-for-profit and private sector organisations.

English councils face a deficit of £1.77 billion in their social care budgets for 2005/06, according to a survey carried out by The Association of Directors of Social Services and the Local Government Association.

The health department has told social services departments to spend new grants for improving information management on systems that tie in with the new white paper on care outside hospital and preparation for integration with the NHS Care Records Service.

Most childcare providers offer a nutritious, balanced diet to those in their care and are knowledgeable about healthy eating, inspectors say.